I need your ideas!!please!?

Question

i was quoted about alittle over a grand to do the side of my house with cement,i dont have that amount but i was thinkin what other alternatives can i do?ill do it my self with my b/f and hes got friends that do construction.anyone have any idea as how i can make this look good,i dont want to step out onto dirt everytime i walk out the door and drag mud in in the winter,thanks to all!!im open to all ideas!

http://i150.photobucket.com/albums/s84/victoria17rock/IMG_0527.jpg

Answer 1

Okay, after looking at the photo, it looks like you could use a cement pad there and not just some patio block.

Pouring a slab is not complicated, but it is hard work. If you're going to do it yourself, you'll need to do some calculating and some legwork, getting prices and arranging for help. You'll probably want to get your boyfriend out there with a couple of friends.

Clear out the area, rake the ground smooth. Is the area reasonably level? Next, nail 2 X 4's together to make the outline of your cement slab. Get some concrete reinforcing wire, you might be able to buy this by the foot or the yard, it's 4' wide rolls of heavy wire with spaces between the wires to make for a wire grid of 6" squares. Cut that and lay it down. You might want to first lay down some heavy, 4 mil. plastic (optional).

You need to do some calculating now. What is the area?  Is it 10' X 20'? Let's use that for demonstration purposes. 10' X 12 = 120"; 20' X 12 = 240"; 120" X 240" X 4" (thickness) = 115,200 cu. in., or 2.469 135 802 5 cubic yard. So, you'd need to order 2 1/2 or 3 cubic yards of cement  for a 10' X 20' cement slab. If you can afford to have a cement truck show up and if they can get close enough to just dump it right there, out of the chute and into your form, that is by far the easiest. If you have to wheelbarrow the wet cement, that will be that much more effort (I've done it, it's hard work).

So, the cement is being poured into your form. Have the boy friend and the couple of friends there, in rubber boots, standing in the wet cement with rakes to move the wet cement around and distribute it evenly as possible. Have them grab ahold of the reinforcing wire with a tine of the rake and lift the reinforcing wire up a little so that it will hopefully be suspended in the wet cement and not lying beneath the cement.

Once the cement is reasonably spread around and it begins to set, you'll need to "float" the surface and created your finish. Buy a couple of cement floats, get down on your hands and knees and start troweling the cement in a circular motion to smooth it out, as though you were icing a cake. A steel trowel for floating will give you a very smooth surface, which is great for a cement floor, but might be slippery outdoors when it rains. A wood float will give you a rougher surface (which might be desirable for outdoors). You'll want to get a special kind of trowel for edging the concrete.

You'll also want to consider whether you need expansion joints in your slab. Too large a piece of concrete may crack, expansion joints are soft material that is placed between sections of concrete. This is more of an issue for outdoor concrete where exposure to rain and freezing temperatures will cause the slab to expand and contract. More than five or six feet of slab may require expansion joints.

Answer 2

You could get a load of landscape stone and put those stepping stones down to create a walk way!

a load of stone is not all that expensive and looks nice!  the stepping stones can be bought from Home Depot or Lowes very reasonablly!

good luck!

Answer 3

A wood deck would look good. Come out about 8 feet toward the fence and you'll have a walkway between the fence and deck. Put some cedar mulch along the fence with some plants then put stepping stones in the walk way starting from the entrance all the way down to another flower bed at the other side. The area in the corner would look nice with a cut out island with mulch and tall plants and do that over to the other side of the deck in the corner. between, mulch, deck and stepping stones, put in sod or river rocks.

Answer 4

You could get a load of pea gravel dumped. It isn't the most beautiful solution in the world, but it won't look any worse than concrete. Also, you could try using the stepping stones, they would probably be easier to shovel snow off.

Answer 5

for a quick easy to do fix you can use chippings. you literally spreed them on the ground

Answer 6

you could do blocks  home depot had the solid 8x16 x4  for 1.30 a piece plus tax  that was in Oh. I don't know how much of an area you have but it's cheaper than buying the bags of concrete

Answer 7

Your best bet is paving stones. You can pick the style and the quality and if you don't like it they can be changed. You can make a small path at first then enlarge it as money becomes available.  Pouring cement is possible and not all that hard so don't count it out. Any small stones would just get dragged into the house.

You can roll out sod for an instant grassy area and later add more pavers.

Answer 8

Maybe you could put something in there. Perhaps a garden, or if you have any pets such as a dog, you could make that the little pets outdoor area! ( i:e doghouse, food bowl, water bowl, balls, and toys )